The long ride across and under the Andes

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Good afternoon my blogging friends,I am currently soaking up the sunshine and fermented grapes in Mendoza Argentina,having decided a road trip would be a good thing.

Now a road trip sounds like a lot of fun and certainly in my life I can remember many a great road trip and probably just as many I can barely remember that were also great, so setting out on one from Chile to Argentina seemed like an adventure in itself.It is summer here in the South and there are a lot of people on the road, so my plan was to get to the bus station early and be sure I had it figured out before it got too late.My bus was scheduled to leave at 22:00 and it is a fair distance from my apartment so I had my bacpack loaded and was out the door by 8.I decided to take the metro to Baron station ,closest to the bus station ,and walk from there. Lots of people on the train coming back from the beach and their summer weekend and it was an uneventful walk to the bus station,(a good thing as busstations are usually in dubious areas).Valparaiso bus station is like all the stations of the world I suppose,busy,hectic and somewhat confusing so I was glad to have the extra time to find out where the bus was leaving from.I was told it leaves from platform 8 to 11!! Not the clear direction I was hoping for but at least the general area for me to watch was narrowed down.people everywhere,dogs mingling and police standing around looking disengaged.I waited near the appointed area and watched a number of busses load and gone to destinations up and down the country but when a big blue Andesmar bus pulled into number ocho I was pleased with myself for having gotten this far and checked my bag with the friendly man then up the stairs to seat number 16.There were only 5 of us on the bus when it pulled out but it was heading to Vina and I figured there would be more passengers there so I sat back and relaxed.gave my ticket to the man and received a visa application,todo bien.

Unfortunately todo was not bien as I was soon to find out. I was on the wrong bus!!,well I was on the right bus,going to Mendoza but I was on the wrong timing.My bus had not yet left Valparaiso and I was already smugly on my way!! Oh well off I got in Vina,retrieved my bag and waited with the many passengers there also going to Mendoza.I watched another Andesmar bus load and go but held back and let it go, then when another one wheeled into view a great relief washed over me again.Bag checked,explanation given to ticket taker who I think understood my tale then up the stairs to seat number 16.

The bus filled to capacity in Vina and off we wheeled into the night.Now I had spoken about Cama and Semi Cama in a previous blog,semi cama was what I had on this trip,aisle seat one back from the front window with some leg room but built for descendants of the Inca's not for me.Still it was not bad and off we went into the night.At this point I cease to mark time in the usual sense and put myself into the zen of travel as Ann used to call it.Sort of an altered state between sleep and awake and hopefully unaware of the long haul ahead.I drifted in and out of sleep for a while but was wakened by the lurching and careening of the bus up a steep incline,from my seat near the front i could see the road ahead in the lights of the bus and what a road it was!!We were climbing the side of a mountain on a switchback road,each hairpin turn was about 340 degrees and there were 30 of them all numbered as we zig zagged up the side of something.it was impossible to see the mountain but needless to say we were climbing and ears were popping.The road was under construction as will be apparent later in the tale as well and there seemed tp be only one lane open for the climbing vehicles and as we wheeled around the turns on the bus we would hit the rubber pylons in the middle of the road,getting them stuck in the wheel wells and requiring the conductor to get out to dislodge them.I was reminded at this point about a notation on the Andesmar brochure indicating all their drivers were trained and followed all safety regulations.The thought of some yahoo driving the bus was not one I would have enjoyed so the notation did the trick.At the summit I drifted off again until some point when I awoke to a carpet of red lights spread out before us in lines and rows.Vehicle break lights!!!We had arrived at the Argentine border crossing and there were hundreds of cars,and busses ahead of us!.The bus took the right lane and moved past long lines of waiting cars but we eventually came to a stop no where near the border post.I drifted off again,at this point unsure where we were really as there were no signs or any indications.It took forever to get close,hours perhaps,but finally we entered a huge covered structure which was the border crossing and all the lines of cars fed towards guard posts each manned with two Argentine federal police.Our bus emptied and we all lined up at one of these posts papers in hand.My turn came and all seemed in order at policeman number one who then passed you over to police woman number two who started to explain something to me about paying.Now I was never very good speaking through glass at banks and cashiers but add the element of a foreign language and I am in trouble.The woman came out of her glass cubicle,which i took to be a bad sign and disappeared with my passport,another bad sign.I had visions of working my way back to Valparaiso or in limbo there at the top of the world somewhere until someone got tired of me.Within moment though i was waved over to another booth where my situation was discussed with who appeared to be the senior and wisest of the border police who motioned me to an empty glass cubicle.My heart sank and visions of being on display for all who pass came to mind but put of nowheer came another woman ussering me into the booth and sitting me down at a computer.She logged on and there it was,reciprocity fees!! Argentina has a great system of paying back countries who charge entry fees to their citizens and canada is one of those guilty parties.I had to log onto a website,create an ID and password and then pay 75 dollars with a credit card! all the while i imagined my bus gone.At the end of the computer process a receipt was printed and i went back to police woman number 2 to show her my receipt and received the requisite stamps in my passport.I looked around and no bus so asked policeman number one where my bus was and his answer,Mendoza!!He smiled,no doubt enjoying the joke numerous times on travellers like me then indicated I should walk out and turn right,which brought me to a line of busses and the question which one belonged to me.The bus was found and my seat regained .no one grumbling about the gringo who cost them so much time but still we did not move and waited and waited.Soon the driver was in and counting us all, then recounting then arguing with some official.They seemed to have a miscount between checking out of Chile and checking into Argentina!! They took a german man off the bus but he returned saying it was not him.A man came and asked to see my stamps on the off chance it was me but I had what was required.we waited a while longer and then without explanation were off into the grey dawn.Yes we had used up the entire night and I did not think we were anywhere near mendoza.The good news is it was daylight and I could see the mountains around us and the incredible road we travelled through the valleys.

The Andes in this part of South America are brown mountains,not like the grey granite of the Rockies.Treeless with a little scrub bush near the base but no living vegitation beyond that.A very brown river rushed along the valley floor and a narrow guage railway line hugged the sides of the mountains.The result of many landslides could be seen along the way and the railway was covered in rock a few places so I do not think it is used anymore..We wound our way along through tunnels and along stretches of beautiful road with the light of the morning brightening up the brown mountain range all around us.

We meandered with the river along the valley heading east towards the sun until suddenly the traffic on the road stopped.A long line of trucks,cars and busses stretched out ahead of us, all stopped.No explanation and everyone seemed used to it but it happened a number of times.Sometimes we sat there for an hour without moving sometimes we inched along for a half hour before it opened up.There was no obvious construction but a couple of times avalanches had reduced the road to one lane so I could understand that but it went on like that for hours.At one point as we were getting closer to Mendoza and the mountains were turning into hills the line of cars stopped on the other side of the road stretched for miles,people sitting in the shade of trucks or just walking around going nowhere!!

Finally the vineyards started rolling out beside the road,beautiful green and lush vines and one of the main reasons everyone comes to Mendoza.Flatlands in the shadow of the Andes.The bus rolled into Mendoza at 12:30 over 5 hours late but the sun is shining and the fermented grapes are already flowing so Todo Bien.

The bad news is I had my camera tucked away in my backpack because it was a night ride....Damn!!

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